A blog about my obsession with baking, cake pop making, and crafting!

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Things are very exciting- I’ve created a new page for all of my baking! Please go to www.pinkpolkadotbaker.com and make sure to bookmark my new page to come back and see the exciting things I am working on!!

This weekend I wanted to play a little with baking a cake and decorating it since it has been a while since I’ve made and decorated one. I decided upon a vanilla cake, baked it, then the big decision was what kind of frosting I would use. I prefer buttercream, but it doesn’t set up as well as the frostings I’ve made with shortening. I really don’t like the frostings made with just shortenings, so I decided to do a mixture. The recipe was inspired by the recipe I found on I Am Baker‘s website.

To make the buttercream, you will need:
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup shortening (I realized I put in a whole stick when I only needed half, but it still turned out pretty well with the whole stick)
1 two pound bag of powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp almond extract
1/2 cup milk (I used Vanilla Silk Milk)

Directions:
1. Put the butter, shortening, vanilla extract, and almond extract in the mixer and cream together about 30 seconds.
2. Dump the entire bag of powdered sugar in, along with the milk. Mix until creamy and desired texture. You can add more milk if you’d like your frosting to be thinner.
3. Enjoy!

I kept my frosting a bit stiffer since I knew I’d be decorating the cake using rosettes.

Directions:
1. After your cake balls are made, cool them in the refrigerator or freezer. Right now, it is pretty cool here so I don’t really need to even put them in the fridge before I start dipping.
2. Set up your station. Have the sucker sticks, green candy coated sunflower seeds, and pretzel sticks all within reach. Put wax paper down on the table in case any chocolate drips and set the Styrofoam close by so you are easily able to put the finished pop in it to dry.
3. Melt the Candy Melts.
4. Take the cake balls out of the fridge. Put the sticks in the cake by dipping the end in the melted chocolate and pushing it about halfway into the ball.
5. Once the stick is dried in, dip the pop into the Candy Melts. Gently tap off any extra chocolate.
6. You have to work quick now- put the pretzel stick in as the stem and the green sunflower seed next to it as the leaf.
7. Place the completed pop in the Styrofoam to dry.
8. Do this for all of your pops and then enjoy!
9. If you have leftover Candy Melts, remake them into the little discs by spooning it out on the wax paper in small amounts. Once they are dry, store in a bag for the next time you make cake pops!

After posting my recipe for lactation cookies, I had a friend share another lactation cookie recipe with me, so I thought I’d give it a try this past weekend! Of the two cookies, I have to say I like the first recipe I posted a little better, which you can find here. I’m pretty sure it’s because they are not as healthy as these ones, and they include my favorite ingredient, regular chocolate (although, I do think dark chocolate could make these even better). Anyway, this recipe is a healthier lactation cookie option and still pretty tasty!

7. Use a cookie scoop and place your dough on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.

8. Bake for 9 minutes. The cookies will still be a little soft. Put them on a baking rack to cool.

9. Enjoy!

Like the other lactation cookies, this makes a large batch so I put about half in my freezer for later. The next time I make these I will probably add a lot more chocolate and Craisins, but that’s mostly because I LOVE my sweets!